Riddle me this

This experiment is simply a grandiose expression of what I've been doing for years: writing and running RPGs for friends. I've always loved including riddles as obstacles or clues for players, and even wrote a monograph about common themes in riddles. If I find a copy of that treatise, I will definitely share it.

Regardless, I've found scribbled notes sent by my past self into the present, but lacking context or solution. Any insight is appreciated.  This first riddle was scribbled on the back of a flyer from a 2013 music festival in red crayon, making me suspect that it was conceived during a day of enjoying music & later frantically scribbled late at night with the red from a free pack of kid crayons from a Steak & Shake. The text is transcribed as best as I can read the words:

Written the same backwards and forward
Spoken, my name is a shorter word
One, two, or family people makes like 3
Black, brown, blue, green & more: what could I be?

I've got some clues on this riddle. Obviously the solution is a single word and a palindrome. The second line makes it sound like some homophone of the word in question is shorter than the answer (like 'mite' & 'might'). It's some collection of colorful items, but beyond those scant imaginings, you guess is a good as mine (and possibly better).

The other is an old email sent to myself from a now-defunct account. It scans better as a poem, but the rhyme of 'is' and 'gives' seems strange if not deliberate, which makes me suspect I've spent a great deal of time polishing it.

Beginning with something you pick up,
The answer is what it then gives
The difference is large grey less small red
Noah's companions, that is.

Anyhow, I'll leave these to befuddle you as much as they have me.

Perseverance ~ Adm. Wolff